Improvement in apparatus for manufacturing cube-sugar



` A. r. wv. PAnTz'. Apparatus for Manufacturing Cube-Sugar.

Patented March 3, 1874.

`Nul/18,083.

Maw@ A @y mw@ into bars,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUST F. W. PARTZ, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 148,083,

December 30, 1873.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUcUsT F. W. PARTZ, of Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State Of California, have invented a certain Improvement in the Manufacture of Block-S u gar, of which the following is a specification:

The nature of my invention consists in the employment of circular knives, placed at certain intervals upon a horizontal shaft, for the cutting of moist granular sugar, deposited and compacted upon suitably-constructed trays, into bars and blocks, the trays being passed under the simultaneously-rotating knives, by which the cakes or layers of sugar are divided and these are further cut up into square lumps or blocks by turning the trays rialtl around and repassing them under the knives, so that the second cuts are atright angles to those made first.

In the following full and exact description reference 'is had to the accompanying drawing, which represents an isometrical projection of a device embodying my invention.

' h is a stationary frame, two opposite sides of which are raised, so as to serve as guides to anotherframe, k, in its being slid to and fro upon the frame l. To the latter are fastened two standards, d el, which support a shaft, e, that rests in sliding1 boxes braced4 down by rubber springs t'. Upon the shaft is placed a row Of circular knives, a a, alternating with circular pieces of wood c o, of a lesser diameter, by which the knives are held in their places; and toward the ends of the shaft are two wheels, c c, which have the same diameter as the knives. The relative position of these wheels to the frame 7tis such that when the latter is pushed under the shaft its faces k k come in contact with the wheels, which are thereby turned, the springs i insuring the necessary friction. u is a tray, which so lits upon the frame 7c that its face is on a level with the faces kf, while the notches in its raised sides are in line with the knives a.

The moist granular sugar to be dividedinto bars and blocks is deposited and compacted upon a number of trays like u by their being passed through the apparatus described in my Letters Patent No. 133,884, or by means of any other device that may be suitable for the purpose. A workman then places one of the trays upon the frame 7c, which he pushes along on the frame h,

whereby the wheels c,

dated March 3, 1874 application filed around, puts it back, and pushes again the other way, so tha-t the now cutting the sugar crosswise to their first cuts, divide the same into square blocks. The first workman then removes the tray and puts another one in its place, and the operation proceeds in the same manner as described until the sugar upon all the trays has been cut. It remains on the trays until it has become dry, when it is taken Off and packed, ready for the market.

If it be intended to have the sugar, while moist, divided only into bars, and the latter, after drying, cut, by circular saws or otherwise, into blocks, the trays a may be dispensed with, and in their stead an endless belt beeinployed, upon which the sugar is deposited and compressed, and then cut in parallel lines by letting the belt, gliding on a smooth surface, or supported by rollers, pass underl the row of knives a, the wheels o (which, in this case, should be of a slightly greater diameter than the knives) being turned by friction with the belt, on which the sugar is allowed to dry. To facilitate its drying, it may be exposed, in some suitable manner, to a current of hot air.

In -order to keep the circular knives clean of sugar, of which, however, buthlittle adheres to them, they may either, from time to time, be brushed, or be turned in a basin with hot water placed beneath the sliaft, or be made self-cleaning by means of ixed Scrapers extending froin a cross-beam fastened to the standards d.

I claim as my invention- The series of parallel circular knives, arranged upon a stationary horizontal shaft, carrying the friction-wheels o c, in eombination with the frame 7c, sliding between the guides h, and carrying the tray u, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

AUGUST F. W. PARTZ.

Witnesses:

J OEN L. BOONE,

C. MILTON RICHARDSON.

the tray off the frame, 

